The Horse Dance

4 Pages 912 Words

The Horse Dance


The horse dance started out with a crier sent around in the morning who told the people to camp in a circle at a certain place. The people did this, in the middle of the Circle Bear Sings and Black Road set a sacred tepee of bison hide, and on it they painted pictures from Black Elks vision. On the West side hey painted a bow and a cup of water, on the north, white geese and the herb, on the east, the daybreak star and the pipe, on the south, the flowering stick and the nations hoop. They also painted horses, elk, and bison. Then over the door of the sacred tepee, they painted the flaming rainbow.
For this ritual Black Elk was told not to eat anything until the horse dance was over. There were four black horses to represent the West, four white horses for the north, four sorrels for the east, four buckskins for the south. For all these young riders had been chosen. And Black Elk got a bay horse to ride on, as it was in his vision. Four of the most beautiful girls in the village were ready to take their part, and there were six old men to use as the Grandfathers.
The four girls and the sixteen horses all faced the sacred tepee. Black Road and Bear Sings started out singing a song, and all the others sang along following, this song was as follows “Father, paint the earth on me. Father, paint the earth on me. Father, paint the earth on me. A nation I will make over. A two- legged nation I will make holy.
Father, paint the earth on me.”
The four black-horse riders were painted all black with blue lightning stripes down their legs and arms and white hail spots on their hips, and there were blue streaks of lightning on the horse’s leg. The white horse riders were painted all white with red streaks of lightning on their arms and legs of the horses there were streaks of red lightning, and all the white riders wore plumes of white horse hair on their heads to look like geese. The riders of th...